Is It Culturally Arrogant to Hate Seeing American Chain Stores Abroad?

Here at Casual Kitchen I often criticize elites who "know better," telling us what we should buy, what we should like and even how stupid we are.

Today, however, I'm going to criticize myself after coming face to face with my own elitism (and hypocrisy even). It was after reading this quote from The Locavore's Dilemma by Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu:

True, the world is becoming more homogenized as each city or town increasingly features the same stores and restaurant chains. This reality hurts the sensibilities of well-off tourists, cultural critics, and activists who would rather have each location be more "authentic"--except typically for the one where they personally reside, which must readily offer the best of everything.

I'll admit it: it thoroughly bugs me to see, everywhere, the same USA-based chain stores and restaurants. McDonalds, Starbucks, KFC, Taco Bell, and so on. "Generica" to use the derisive term.

And if I were to try and analyze exactly why it bugs me, I'd probably fall back onto the quote by G.B. Shaw: "I dislike feeling at home when abroad." Shaw was an elitist too by the way.

Unfortunately, in the USA we've gone far beyond Generica. Now, here, you don't just see the same chain stores in every town and city across the country. You see the same shopping plazas, the same gas stations, the same department stores, the same strip malls, the same convenience stores, the same grocery stores. In the past year, I've done three major road trips (to Ohio, to Omaha, and to central Florida), and, to me, even our homes, apartments and office buildings--nearly all architectural structures!--are starting to look exactly the same.

Granted, Generica is barely getting off the ground in some countries. But it's clear where things are headed. I'll give an example: At this point there are three Starbucks in Gdansk, Poland (fortunately, for now, there are none in the old town tourist district). Do you think in the next few years there will be more? Or fewer? And for how long is Gdansk's old town district likely to remain Starbucks-free?

So, here's where I bring up my hypocrisy in front of all my readers. Stipulated that it bugs me to see Starbucks everywhere in the world. And stipulated that it depresses me to know that in places like Gdansk, there are Starbucks (and many other examples of Generica), and in time there are going to be more.

But who the hell am I to say that the people of Gdansk should or shouldn't have Starbucks? Gdansk doesn't know or care what I think, nor should it. Much like a stock I might buy, Gdansk doesn't know who I am.

Most importantly, Gdansk is for the people there, not for me. I'm just an annoying tourist who, while passing through, happens to come down with a really bad case of the sads because some chain store, inexcusably, made him feel at home while abroad. The nerve!

What this really boils down to is disallowing for others the things that you dislike.

It's one thing to talk about how you wish places like Gdansk, Poland would hold onto the types of cafes, restaurants and shops that they've had in the past, and you hope that exported American chain stores won't displace them. But it is culturally superior, even arrogant, to decide for others what they should choose for themselves.

And yet as aware as I am about the hypocrisy of feeling this way, it still bugs me to no end to see American chain stores and restaurants throughout the world. I can't get past it.

Readers, what do you think about all this?





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Hypermiling: Improve Your Car’s Gas Mileage and Save $ on Gas

Readers, are you looking for a few simple ways to save money on gas? This post shares ideas on how to "hypermile" with your car.
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What is hypermiling? It's simply a collection of techniques to optimize and maximize your car's fuel efficiency. If you can build a habit of using even just a few of the fundamental hypermiling tips shared in this post, you could easily save 10%--and perhaps as much as 30%--on gasoline.

Two caveats: this is by no means an exhaustive list of hypermiling tips, and at least one of the tips below could be dangerous if used inappropriately. As always, please feel free to share your own favorite hypermiling techniques in the comments.

1) Know your car's optimal highway speed
In your car's owner's manual you can find your car's optimal fuel efficiency speed. This speed depends on your car's transmission, gearing ratios and aerodynamic profile, but for most automobiles, it's going to be in the neighborhood of 50-55 mph. Whenever you can do so safely, try to drive at this speed on the highway.

Note that in the current era of 65, 70 and even 75 mph speed limits here in the USA, this presents a problem: your driving speed must be reasonable relative to other cars on the road. If your car's optimal efficiency speed is 55 miles per hour, yet you're in a 70 mph zone (which really means everyone's driving 75-80), you risk getting mowed down just to save a few bucks on gas. Find a safe midpoint here and drive with the general flow of traffic.

2) Acceleration techniques
We all have an inner teenager inside us, dying to get a jump on green lights and race ahead of everyone else. I do this too, more than I ought to admit. However, rapid acceleration is just a fast way to waste fuel. It's far more mileage-friendly to accelerate gently and gradually from a standing start.

Your acceleration techniques on the open highway will affect your fuel efficiency too. For example, if accelerating from, say, 60 mph to 70 mph, resist the urge to floor it. Restrain that inner teenager! Remember: you're not impressing the ladies, you're just wasting gas.

3) Braking/Coasting Techniques
Your car uses gasoline to produce forward kinetic energy, which means any time you brake you waste gas. Coasting, on the other hand, conserves that kinetic energy. Therefore, your braking and coasting techniques have a significant impact your car's fuel efficiency.

You can use a wide range of coasting techniques to optimize forward movement with little to no gas. A few ideas:

* Use road terrain to your advantage. Many major highways have hills that are steep, gradual and long enough that you can put your car in neutral and coast for miles at or close to your desired speed.

* Don't approach a long downhill at higher than your desired speed because you'll end up braking the entire way down, wasting fuel, forward momentum--and your brakepads.

* Finally, if you have a habit of racing up to a red light and then hitting the brakes, you're doing it wrong.

4) Vents, not windows
When I was a kid growing up in the 1970s, our family car had "60-WRD Air Conditioning": drive 60 with the windows rolled down. If we'd only known the truth: it's more fuel-efficient to roll up your windows and use your car's interior vents instead. Driving with the windows down is fun and all, but it increases your car's wind resistance and drag. Note that at low speeds or in local driving, this tip won't make a noticeable difference in your mileage--the effect is far more meaningful at highway speeds.

5) High speeds = exponentially more waste
As any math geek will tell you, your car's air resistance (or drag) is a function of your driving velocity squared. In actual English, this means as your driving speed increases, you waste more and more of your fuel on wind resistance. At high speeds, your car burns fuel--a lot of fuel--just pushing air out of the way.

I'll throw some numbers at you: you can generally assume that driving at 70 mph is about 15% less efficient than driving at 60 mph. And driving at 85 mph is about 25% less efficient. Speed not only kills, it wastes money too.

6) Eliminate bad mileage habits
We've already covered a few important mileage-murdering habits like rapid acceleration, driving at high speeds, and so on. But there are several others. For example: do you let your car idle for long periods? Do you overuse your car's air conditioning when using the vents would be good enough? During highway driving, do you repeatedly accelerate and decelerate rather than driving at a steady speed?

Don't worry, no one's saying you can't use the A/C: only the hardest of hard-core hypermilers are willing to swelter in a hot car to save a few bucks on gas. But I will say this: if you do have the habit of repeatedly accelerating and decelerating on the highway you're not just wasting fuel. You should also know the internet has created a rather unflattering term for you. :)

7) Keep your car in good repair
This is the easiest tip of all to follow. Check your oil levels periodically, change your oil when required, keep your wheels properly aligned, and keep your tires balanced and properly inflated. These are basic auto maintenance steps that will help improve your car's fuel efficiency.

8) Avoid ethanol
We've written here at CK about the deeply irresponsible policy behind ethanol fuel mandates. Let's set aside for now the depressing truth that producing ethanol wastes more fossil fuels than it replaces. The real problem hypermilers have with ethanol is this: ethanol burns so poorly that it makes your car less fuel efficient. In fact, at ethanol/gasoline proportions above 10%, ethanol can even disrupt proper functioning of your engine.

The EPA claims that at 10% concentrations, ethanol will cause your vehicle to lose about 3% in fuel efficiency. However, many drivers have found far more significant efficiency losses with ethanol-blended fuels. Bottom line: if you want to improve your gas mileage, keep ethanol out of your car.

Sadly, however, many states mandate that gas stations sell 10% ethanol blend. Our politicians may not understand the laws of thermodynamics, but we--as environmentally concerned drivers--can try to avoid these fuels as much as we possibly can.

9) Drafting
Here's the one fuel efficiency tactic I'm hesitant to share. Why? Because it can be dangerous if misused. But I'll offer it anyway, with caveats, simply because it's the single most powerful hypermiling technique.

Depending on where you get your facts (and depending on your driving speed) wind resistance can reduce your car's fuel efficiency by up to 50%. If you ever look up and see a flock of geese flying in formation, or if you've ever seen riders at the Tour de France draft off of each other, you can see how enormously helpful it is to have someone else take the brunt of the wind for you.

In the context of hypermiling, then, drafting is essentially following a larger vehicle at a safe but fairly close distance, and using that vehicle as a wind break. A typical example is to follow a semi truck that happens to be traveling at your desired speed.

If you follow a large truck at a moderate distance (say, at a 2-3 second following distance) you'll feel a surprising amount of turbulence as your car passes through the same air the truck passed through moments before. Note however, that if you creep up closer to this truck, the turbulence drops significantly--to the point where you can actually start to feel your car being pulled along in the truck's vacuum. All of a sudden you don't need to use as much pressure on the gas pedal to maintain speed.

This is the drafting sweet spot: not so close to the truck that you risk rear-ending it, not so far back that you're sitting in the truck’s worst turbulence. Here's where you can dramatically increase your car's fuel efficiency.

Once again, I offer this specific tip hesitantly and with disclaimers. To return to the Tour de France example, always keep in mind that when the lead guy suddenly stops, all forty of the other guys in the peloton crash right into him. And that's the problem with drafting: it's riskier--and probably not worth it just to save a few bucks on gas. However, if you choose to do it, make sure you stay alert, drive safely and maintain proper following distance at all times.

10) How to manage heavy traffic
The amount of fuel wasted in traffic jams is enormous and probably unmeasurable. As with idling, if your car is running and you're not moving, your gas mileage will be… a big fat 0 mpg. Thus it makes sense as much as possible to avoid traveling during rush hour--and to especially avoid rush hour in major urban centers known for bad traffic.

Sadly, there's no foolproof way to always avoid traffic, so if you are stuck in a jam, you can use certain anticipatory acceleration and braking techniques to limit the gas mileage damage. For example: don't accelerate rapidly to catch up with the car in front of you and then hit the brakes as you approach. Instead, accelerate gently and then coast. Further, keep your eyes on what's happening several cars ahead of you, and try to anticipate and match the general movement of traffic with as little braking as possible. If you see nothing but brake lights a quarter mile ahead of you, there's even less reason to race up to the bumper of the car ahead of you.

Wait a second: does all this hypermiling stuff really work?
Yes, it actually works. Readers, about a year ago, on a long road trip from New Jersey to Texas, I did a control test: I drove normally for one full tank of gas, and drove a separate full tank's worth of gas using as many hypermiling techniques as I could from the list above.

I'll admit up front: I was cynical about the value of these hypermiling techniques. I didn't think I'd see that big a difference. And yet the improvement I was able to get in gas mileage was substantial--far greater than I expected. Normally, my car (a 2009 Pontiac Vibe) gets about 30-32 miles per gallon in highway driving. Using hypermiling techniques, however, I was able to get my fuel efficiency up to nearly 40 miles per gallon. That's a 25-30% improvement, and it translates directly into a 25-30% savings on gasoline costs.

Yes, this was just one trial, and yes, it was neither exact nor scientific, and yes, your mileage may vary (heh), but I encourage you to try some of these techniques yourself and see if you can see a difference. I'm guessing you will.

One final thought. Individually, many of these tips won’t have much of a noticeable impact on your gas mileage. But use a few--or all--of them and collectively they’ll be significant. It’s not that difficult, for example, to draft off the occasional truck here and there, build better acceleration and braking habits, and drive at a consistent and moderate speed. Just doing these things could improve your mileage by 10-20% with minimal effort. Try it--and reap the savings!

Readers, what do you think? What’s your favorite fuel saving technique?


For Further Reading:
1) MPG for Speed: a simple one-page site that walks though some of the mileage/fuel efficiency losses your car experiences at higher speeds.

2) What increased speed and air resistance does to your car’s fuel efficiency.

3) For the serious math geek: an article that looks at a several different ways to calculate energy loss at high driving speeds.

4) Top Ten Ways To Waste Gas.

5) How Does Ethanol Impact Fuel Efficiency?

6) Interesting and somewhat technical discussion thread on ethanol and fuel efficiency at the Eng-Tips Forum.


How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.

What's Your Take on Cruises?

A huge debate broke out a last week here at CK in the comments of my Ersatz Foods post on whether cruises were a desirable--or an awful--form of travel.

I think it was obvious from the first sentence of that post that this form of travel didn't resonate with me at all. But who cares about what I think? I want to know what you think.

Admittedly, this subject is slightly off-topic, but not entirely. After all, a big part of cruises--and an even bigger part of whether you like cruising--is the food. And I gladly admit, on my cruise, which was an eight-day Celebrity Cruise to Bermuda, I actually liked most of the food. It was mostly mass-produced, yes. It was somewhat over-salted, just like lots of restaurant food is. But all in all, it wasn't too bad.

So, readers, let's hear from both sides of the cruising debate, both pro and con: Are cruises a good way to travel? And when you've gone on cruises, what did you like, and what didn't you like? And most importantly, what about the food?

Share your thoughts below!


Related Posts:
Cheap Eats in Honolulu: Nine Inexpensive Restaurants You Should Check Out in Waikiki
Our New Zealand Travel Blog
A Short Guide to Common Nicaraguan Foods
On the Earthquake in Santiago
Knowing When Not to Be a Food Snob
Road Eats Secrets: How to Find the Best Local Food When You're On the Road
Ten Frugal Things We Do
Breaking Your Own Frugality Rules

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

A Short Guide to Common Nicaraguan Foods

I thought I'd share few details about the food we've enjoyed while we're here in Nicaragua (recall, Laura and I are here with a team of eyecare professionals giving free eye exams in several villages here in the country).

First, the food is really good here. Really good. Simple, straightforward, unpretentious and delicious. We've had gallo pinto (simple beans and rice) with nearly every meal, whether morning, noon or night, and we've really grown used to this wonderful comfort food. I have to find out a way to copy the special way they make it here.

Another common food here is vigaron: cabbage salad. It's thinly sliced cabbage in a light vinegar sauce that's found alongside nearly every meal. Nicaraguans consider it like a side salad. Again, it's basic, unpretentious and really good.

Also, queso frito or fried cheese. They have a simple white cheese here that is salty and firm. When fried, this cheese doesn't melt--it gets just a bit crispy on the outside. It's a common appetizer or side dish here and it's utterly delicious. One of the best meals we had during our entire trip was a simple platter of queso frito, fried plantains and a side of gallo pinto--along with a Toña, one of Nicaragua's national beers:

Finally, a delicious fish we've had the pleasure of having here: guapote. It's a mild white fish, typically grilled and served up whole. It's kind of a beastly looking fish that looks like it belongs in the Jurassic era, but it's easy to eat, not too bony, and well worth ordering.

Guapote con salsa tomate, arroz (rice), tostones (fried plantains) y vigaron:

Guapote, detail:

We didn't come to Nicaragua for the food, but we've been really surprised and happy with everything we've eaten on this trip. And we've been overwhelmed with all of the people we've met and the things we've seen here. This is a friendly and inexpensive country that is patient with tourists. It's almost as if they've seen enough tourists to appreciate them, but not too many to get sick of them or try to take advantage of them.

If you're considering a visit to Nicaragua, both Laura and I would highly encourage it, and if you want to ask any questions, feel free to reach us via email or by leaving a comment below.

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me from your own blog, or by subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Our New Zealand Travel Blog

Just a quick off-topic post today for any readers who are interested in travel, and specifically interested in traveling to New Zealand.

As many long-time Casual Kitchen readers know, I'm currently taking a bit of a break from the work world. And on January 1st, Laura joined me and began a six-month sabbatical from her job. And the very first big trip we took together was a four-week tour of New Zealand.

We've dreamed of visiting New Zealand for years and we were not disappointed. It was an amazing place, full of friendly people and stunning natural beauty. We can't wait to go back.

For any readers here who are curious about this incredible country, please feel free to take a look at the full index of posts from our New Zealand Travel Blog. And for those of you who just want a quick taste of some of the highlights, here are--in our opinion--some of the best entries:

Why I Ate All the Chocolate Before We Left
The Acclimation Drive
A Stunning Drive on the Otago Peninsula
Cropdusting with Alistair and Louise
Milford Sound: Breathtaking Beauty in Fiordland
Abel Tasman National Park
The Boiling Mud Pools of Waiotapu
Warkworth and Tawharanui, and How Sidetrips Are Richly Rewarded in New Zealand
Recommended Reading for YOUR Trip to New Zealand
11 Things We'd Do Differently on our Next Trip to New Zealand

Enjoy! Over the next few weeks and months, look for more photos and posts on our trips to Guatemala as well as Hawaii on this same site.

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by linking to me, subscribing to my RSS feed, or submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon.

On the Road with Casual Kitchen: Belgium a Volonte

A couple of weeks ago, Laura and I visited Belgium for the very first time, and I wanted to share with you three simple food-related tips for navigating this wonderful country:

1) Drink beer,
2) Eat chocolate,

And most importantly:

3) If you see the words "à volonté" written outside a restaurant, go in.

Just as the four greatest words in the English language are "all you can eat," the two greatest words in, uh, Walloon are "à volonté." And the greatest culinary experience we had in Belgium, and indeed the greatest all-you-can-eat experience I'll ever have in my entire life (that is, until somebody invents all-you-can-eat dark chocolate) was at a little restaurant in Ghent called Amadeus.

We're not talking an overcooked $6.95 Chinese buffet here. This restaurant sold ribs--barbecued ribs--that were as good as anything I've had in the American south. And they kept bringing more, and more... and more.


I wanted to grab the waiter by the shirt and tell him that he lived in paradise, but I was unable to get out of my chair.

And then came dessert. I had a spectacular chocolate mousse that was as good as Paul Prudhomme's recipe, and Laura and our Belgian friend had the coupe dame blanche, which we call in American an "ice cream sundae." Only it sounds even more delicious in French, doesn't it?


You can't eat like this too often, for obvious reasons. But if you're a disciplined and healthy eater most of the time, it's okay, occasionally, to drop your guard once in a while and really pig out.

There were only two (minor) disappointments that evening. First, I just couldn't find an open walk-in angioplasty clinic anywhere in town. And it wasn't even that late.

Second, Laura only finished off one and a half racks of ribs. I know she could have done better.

Related Links:
Amadeus Restaurant (locations in Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp)
The Xenophobe's Guide to the Belgians (I highly recommend this amusing mini-guidebook for anyone interested in visiting Belgium)

Related Posts:
Ten Strategies to Stop Mindless Eating
Ten Rules for the Modern Restaurant-Goer
The Chocolate Gene



How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by subscribing to my RSS feed, or submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon.